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Why do we hate the sound of our voices when we hear them on a recorder?
How is it that we’re so shocked at what we hear when we listen to ourselves for the first time? Why do we avoid listening to ourselves whenever possible? Here I’ll tell you why you hate your voice & how to improve the sound of your voice forever.
Ok, so you’ve been listening to your beautiful, melodious, resonant voice in your head your whole life and then suddenly, one day you heard it on a recorder. You, aghast, thought to yourself, “How in the world do I have any friends?…How can people stand listening to me?!” People hating their voices in this article.
Or did you think, “That recorder is wrong! That’s not at all what I sound like!”?
Well, the recorder wasn’t wrong. That is what you sound like. Comes as a shock when you’ve been listening to that gorgeous voice in your head day in & day out. Unfortunately thin, higher pitched voices are harder for people to hear.
People literally have to work to understand your message. Also, that thin voice doesn’t help people to take you seriously and they’ll likely pass over your fantastic suggestions. Moreover, people can misunderstand your message just because of your voice.
Why Your Voice is Different in Your Head
Speech, simply put, is air molecules that vibrate. Speech is sound and sound travels along a path of molecules, bouncing and vibrating along the way. You are hearing your voice through bone conduction, which is denser than air conduction–that’s how everyone else hears you. So remember that thick, full, resonant gorgeous voice? It’s only in your head. Welcome to the higher pitch, thin resonance, non-projecting voice that everyone else in the room (barely) hears.
But do not despair! There’s a solution & it takes very little time. I’m going to teach your how to improve the sound of your voice! It takes just a few weeks of training your voice resulting in your true voice.
After your training, you’ll have use of your true voice permanently! Follow my training to the t (it’s easy!) and you’ll end up with a full, resonant magnetic voice that people will adore listening to!
So if you want to learn to improve the sound of your voice because it sounds tinny, or thin or because you’re not heard across the room the following exercises & links are for you.
How to Improve the Sound of Your Voice
The first thing you need to do is to eliminate the tension in your throat. The stress & tension of our everyday lives manifests itself into your musculature. Mostly the musculature of your upper body & that of your vocal mechanism.
Remove Tension in your Vocal Mechanism
First, we need to accept that the tension is there. Second, we need to find it. One way to find it is to create it. Try this exercise:
Try that a few times a day for a few days. What you’ll find as a result is: you’re able to start finding the tension that already exists and eliminate it! This article addresses the fear that causes your voice & speech to be less effective.
Let that Gorgeous Voice Out!
The next thing you need to do is use abdominal breathing and then use that abdominal breathing for your speech. Don’t be afraid to sound breathy–just make sure you match your voice to your air.
Next, you need to use a back resonance. This results in that full magnetic voice we talked about. Here’s how to speak better with a magnetic voice. That article has some infographics & details on how to obtain a back resonance to improve the sound of your voice. Here’s my video on how to use back resonance to make your voice sound amazing.
Get People’s Attention & Hold It
Alright. People can hear you and they’re listening, hurray! Now you have to maintain their attention & get them to do what you say. That’s where intonation comes in. Here’s my two-minute video on how to maintain people’s attention. Using great intonation will not only maintains people’s attention but it gets them to really process your message easily and as a result follow your call to action with minimum resistance.
Most of my clients end up doing voice-overs even when their careers were completely different. Read the story of one of my clients who ended up on national television and doing the voice-overs for the theatre.
Body Language Impacts Your Voice
Have a closed body? Most likely you also have a closed voice. Once you open up your body (meaning not crossing your extremities, keeping your arms open, etc.) Try these body language fixes to help you open up your voice and let your awesome out. What’s the result? Your getting what you need out of life!
Create Your Verbal Brand
What? You haven’t heard of your verbal brand? It’s your voice that gives people loads of information about you right off that bat. Is your voice making you sound authoritative yet warm? Continue to improve the sound of your voice with the above exercises and it will. Your words & your tone determine how you make people feel. Just saying, “Hi, how are you?” with a gorgeous, fully resonant voice makes people really feel good. Pair it with a smile and they just want to spend more time with you!